Tony Blair has admitted that the risks of climate change may be more serious than previously thought. The Prime Minister’s concern is revealed today in a book that contains compelling evidence from some of the world’s leading scientists of the growing threat to the planet. Reassessments of major risks to the Earth, such as the melting of the great land-based ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, which would raise sea levels disastrously, or the slowing down of the Gulf Stream, which would plunge Britain into a new ice age, show that they may be triggered by temperature rises well within those already predicted for the coming century. From WBCSD web site
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A sustainable world needs a sustainable China
China, a country with spectacular economic growth – averaging almost 10 per cent a year over the past quarter century – faces enormous environmental challenges. Issues range from energy and water scarcity to air pollution and soil erosion. The continuing growth needed to satisfy the aspirations of its 1.3 billion people and the trend of multi-national companies moving their production facilities to China pose a serious threat to the environment. Due to the scale of their environmental impact, the consequences are felt worldwide.
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It is almost always a slave who cannot live on little.– Horace
Greenwashing Construction: LEED Certification Helps Avoid ‘Building Makeovers’
Officially, greenwashing is disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image. The Web site corpwatch.com calls it “the phenomenon of socially and environmentally destructive corporations attempting to preserve and expand their markets by posing as friends of the environment. it is environmental whitewash. Hogwash.” Greenwashing – as depicted in ads where environmentally negligent companies portray themselves through pictures of lush forests and furry animals – has also been described as “eco-porn.” The building industry, at least, is emerging from this conundrum, thanks to the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program. It is the first widely accepted standard for what makes a building truly green and consists of a grab-bag of environmental measures a builder can implement, from air quality to recycled content to energy use. Follow the link.
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Between our dreams and actions lies this world.– Bruce Springsteen
Xiaokang shehui or Xiaokang Society
The Chinese term “xiaokang society†(xiaokang shehui, literally “society of small peace/comfort/healthâ€)—first applied in China’s Classic of Rites (one of the five classics of Confucianism) some 2000 years ago—has been widely used in the PRC since around 2002. The vision of a xiaokang society is one in which most people are moderately well off and middle class, and in which economic prosperity is sufficient to move most of the Chinese population into comfortable means, but in which economic advancement is not the sole focus of society. Explicitly incorporated into the concept of a xiaokang society is the idea that economic growth needs to be balanced with sometimes conflicting goals of social equality and environmental protection.
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Plankton map
Map of Plankton produced by the NASA. Red indicates the higher concentration, blue the lower. Plankton is important component of the food chain and a CO2 regulator. Plankton contains small amount of Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3). When they die (and if they are not eaten by other animals) they sink and remove CO2 out of the atmosphere for a certain period of time. See Phytoplankton.
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Either we’ll learn to outdo nature or nature will do us in.– James Lovelock
Anomie
Anomie refers to a breakdown of social norms and a condition where norms no longer control the activities of members in society. Individuals cannot find their place in society without clear rules to help guide them. Changing conditions as well as adjustment of life leads to dissatisfaction, conflict, and deviance. The term was introduced by the french sociologist Emile Durkheim who observed that social periods of disruption (economic depression, for instance) brought about greater anomie and higher rates of crime, suicide, and deviance. Anomie is increasing in societies undermined by liberal capitalism which is incapable to give sense to social life other than by consumerism, squandering, monopolization of natural resources and revenue from economic activities and growing inequalities.
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One Planet, Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment
The site gives access to a few samples of pictures available in the publication “One Planet, Many People: Atlas of Our Changing Environment”. Striking examples of the impact of society on our environment, like the Iguazú National Park, o the right located in Argentina near its borders with Brazil and Paraguay that contains remnants of the highly endangered Paranaense Rain Forest.
weblink: UNEP Atlas • from: UNEP _ United nation Environment Program • in detail XlnkS6F3 XlnkC180C